Question

What does Ferlinghetti hope to achieve by invoking Walt Whitman in this poem?

Answer 1

Answer:

In To the Oracle at Delphi, Ferlinghetti points to ancient Greece as the beginning of civilization on which America as a country and a society was built. In the Oracle, he turns to a figure thought to provide wise counsel, which he thinks America needs. He speaks to the Oracle as a witness to what has happened to the true America or the one that sprang from Europe (Europa). It is the America of the underprivileged, whose voices often go unheard. It is a "vaster" or bigger society, but it is not greater or better. We have technology and money, but we have no art, which is meant to encourage us to feel, particularly for one another. He seeks guidance on how we can eliminate inequality and maintain our democracy instead of moving steadily toward plutocracy, which means that the wealthy will rule over everyone else. With "new dreams to dream" and "new myths to live by," American society can be restored or saved.

Explanation:

Answer 2

n "To the Oracle at Delphi," Ferlinghetti addresses the mythological figure of the Oracle of Delphi, whom he calls the Sybil. He asks the Sybil to bring about a new age of wisdom and enlightenment that will eliminate inequality from modern American society. He addresses her not only as a poet but as America itself, which suggests he is speaking for the downtrodden and ignored people of the United States:

And speak to us in the poet's voice  

the voice of the fourth person singular  

the voice of the inscrutable future  

the voice of the people mixed

with a wild soft laughter—

Ferlinghetti invokes Walt Whitman’s poem "I Hear America Singing" to connect the idea that American society has lost its way. In "I Hear America Singing," Whitman describes the joy of ordinary Americans as they go about their daily work. By invoking Whitman’s picture of the common people, Ferlinghetti conveys that it is this America that needs to be rescued and reestablished.

And tell us how to save us from ourselves  

and how to survive our own rulers  

who would make a plutocracy of our democracy  

in the Great Divide  

between the rich and the poor  

in whom Walt Whitman heard America singing

Ferlinghetti invokes the imagery of Whitman’s poem to show what is at stake if Sybil does not guide and save Americans.